Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

The people of Jerusalem made Ahaziah, Jehoram’s youngest son, king in his place, since the raiders, who came with the Arabs into the camp, had killed all the older sons. So Ahaziah son of Jehoram king of Judah began to reign.
Ahaziah was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem one year. His mother’s name was Athaliah, a granddaughter of Omri.
He too followed the ways of the house of Ahab, for his mother encouraged him to act wickedly. He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, as the house of Ahab had done, for after his father’s death they became his advisers, to his undoing. He also followed their counsel when he went with Joram son of Ahab king of Israel to wage war against Hazael king of Aram at Ramoth Gilead. The Arameans wounded Joram; so he returned to Jezreel to recover from the wounds they had inflicted on him at Ramoth in his battle with Hazael king of Aram.
Then Ahaziah son of Jehoram king of Judah went down to Jezreel to see Joram son of Ahab because he had been wounded.
Through Ahaziah’s visit to Joram, God brought about Ahaziah’s downfall. When Ahaziah arrived, he went out with Joram to meet Jehu son of Nimshi, whom the Lord had anointed to destroy the house of Ahab. While Jehu was executing judgment on the house of Ahab, he found the officials of Judah and the sons of Ahaziah’s relatives, who had been attending Ahaziah, and he killed them. He then went in search of Ahaziah, and his men captured him while he was hiding in Samaria. He was brought to Jehu and put to death. They buried him, for they said, “He was a son of Jehoshaphat, who sought the Lord with all his heart.” So there was no one in the house of Ahaziah powerful enough to retain the kingdom.
When Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she proceeded to destroy the whole royal family of the house of Judah. But Jehosheba, the daughter of King Jehoram, took Joash son of Ahaziah and stole him away from among the royal princes who were about to be murdered and put him and his nurse in a bedroom. Because Jehosheba, the daughter of King Jehoram and wife of the priest Jehoiada, was Ahaziah’s sister, she hid the child from Athaliah so she could not kill him. He remained hidden with them at the temple of God for six years while Athaliah ruled the land.

• 2 Chronicles 22:1-12

In the seventh year Jehoiada showed his strength. He made a covenant with the commanders of units of a hundred: Azariah son of Jeroham, Ishmael son of Jehohanan, Azariah son of Obed, Maaseiah son of Adaiah, and Elishaphat son of Zikri. They went throughout Judah and gathered the Levites and the heads of Israelite families from all the towns. When they came to Jerusalem, the whole assembly made a covenant with the king at the temple of God.
Jehoiada said to them, “The king’s son shall reign, as the Lord promised concerning the descendants of David. Now this is what you are to do: A third of you priests and Levites who are going on duty on the Sabbath are to keep watch at the doors, a third of you at the royal palace and a third at the Foundation Gate, and all the others are to be in the courtyards of the temple of the Lord. No one is to enter the temple of the Lord except the priests and Levites on duty; they may enter because they are consecrated, but all the others are to observe the Lord’s command not to enter. The Levites are to station themselves around the king, each with weapon in hand. Anyone who enters the temple is to be put to death. Stay close to the king wherever he goes.”
The Levites and all the men of Judah did just as Jehoiada the priest ordered. Each one took his men—those who were going on duty on the Sabbath and those who were going off duty—for Jehoiada the priest had not released any of the divisions. Then he gave the commanders of units of a hundred the spears and the large and small shields that had belonged to King David and that were in the temple of God. He stationed all the men, each with his weapon in his hand, around the king—near the altar and the temple, from the south side to the north side of the temple.
Jehoiada and his sons brought out the king’s son and put the crown on him; they presented him with a copy of the covenant and proclaimed him king. They anointed him and shouted, “Long live the king!”
When Athaliah heard the noise of the people running and cheering the king, she went to them at the temple of the Lord. She looked, and there was the king, standing by his pillar at the entrance. The officers and the trumpeters were beside the king, and all the people of the land were rejoicing and blowing trumpets, and musicians with their instruments were leading the praises. Then Athaliah tore her robes and shouted, “Treason! Treason!”
Jehoiada the priest sent out the commanders of units of a hundred, who were in charge of the troops, and said to them: “Bring her out between the ranks and put to the sword anyone who follows her.” For the priest had said, “Do not put her to death at the temple of the Lord.” So they seized her as she reached the entrance of the Horse Gate on the palace grounds, and there they put her to death.
Jehoiada then made a covenant that he, the people and the king would be the Lord’s people. All the people went to the temple of Baal and tore it down. They smashed the altars and idols and killed Mattan the priest of Baal in front of the altars.
Then Jehoiada placed the oversight of the temple of the Lord in the hands of the Levitical priests, to whom David had made assignments in the temple, to present the burnt offerings of the Lord as written in the Law of Moses, with rejoicing and singing, as David had ordered. He also stationed gatekeepers at the gates of the Lord’s temple so that no one who was in any way unclean might enter.
He took with him the commanders of hundreds, the nobles, the rulers of the people and all the people of the land and brought the king down from the temple of the Lord. They went into the palace through the Upper Gate and seated the king on the royal throne. All the people of the land rejoiced, and the city was calm, because Athaliah had been slain with the sword.

• 2 Chronicles 23:1-21

Joash was seven years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem forty years. His mother’s name was Zibiah; she was from Beersheba. Joash did what was right in the eyes of the Lord all the years of Jehoiada the priest. Jehoiada chose two wives for him, and he had sons and daughters.
Some time later Joash decided to restore the temple of the Lord. He called together the priests and Levites and said to them, “Go to the towns of Judah and collect the money due annually from all Israel, to repair the temple of your God. Do it now.” But the Levites did not act at once.
Therefore the king summoned Jehoiada the chief priest and said to him, “Why haven’t you required the Levites to bring in from Judah and Jerusalem the tax imposed by Moses the servant of the Lord and by the assembly of Israel for the tent of the covenant law?”
Now the sons of that wicked woman Athaliah had broken into the temple of God and had used even its sacred objects for the Baals.
At the king’s command, a chest was made and placed outside, at the gate of the temple of the Lord. A proclamation was then issued in Judah and Jerusalem that they should bring to the Lord the tax that Moses the servant of God had required of Israel in the wilderness. All the officials and all the people brought their contributions gladly, dropping them into the chest until it was full. Whenever the chest was brought in by the Levites to the king’s officials and they saw that there was a large amount of money, the royal secretary and the officer of the chief priest would come and empty the chest and carry it back to its place. They did this regularly and collected a great amount of money. The king and Jehoiada gave it to those who carried out the work required for the temple of the Lord. They hired masons and carpenters to restore the Lord’s temple, and also workers in iron and bronze to repair the temple.
The men in charge of the work were diligent, and the repairs progressed under them. They rebuilt the temple of God according to its original design and reinforced it. When they had finished, they brought the rest of the money to the king and Jehoiada, and with it were made articles for the Lord’s temple: articles for the service and for the burnt offerings, and also dishes and other objects of gold and silver. As long as Jehoiada lived, burnt offerings were presented continually in the temple of the Lord.
Now Jehoiada was old and full of years, and he died at the age of a hundred and thirty. He was buried with the kings in the City of David, because of the good he had done in Israel for God and his temple.
After the death of Jehoiada, the officials of Judah came and paid homage to the king, and he listened to them. They abandoned the temple of the Lord, the God of their ancestors, and worshiped Asherah poles and idols. Because of their guilt, God’s anger came on Judah and Jerusalem. Although the Lord sent prophets to the people to bring them back to him, and though they testified against them, they would not listen.
Then the Spirit of God came on Zechariah son of Jehoiada the priest. He stood before the people and said, “This is what God says: ‘Why do you disobey the Lord’s commands? You will not prosper. Because you have forsaken the Lord, he has forsaken you.’”
But they plotted against him, and by order of the king they stoned him to death in the courtyard of the Lord’s temple. King Joash did not remember the kindness Zechariah’s father Jehoiada had shown him but killed his son, who said as he lay dying, “May the Lord see this and call you to account.”
At the turn of the year, the army of Aram marched against Joash; it invaded Judah and Jerusalem and killed all the leaders of the people. They sent all the plunder to their king in Damascus. Although the Aramean army had come with only a few men, the Lord delivered into their hands a much larger army. Because Judah had forsaken the Lord, the God of their ancestors, judgment was executed on Joash. When the Arameans withdrew, they left Joash severely wounded. His officials conspired against him for murdering the son of Jehoiada the priest, and they killed him in his bed. So he died and was buried in the City of David, but not in the tombs of the kings.
Those who conspired against him were Zabad, son of Shimeath an Ammonite woman, and Jehozabad, son of Shimrith a Moabite woman. The account of his sons, the many prophecies about him, and the record of the restoration of the temple of God are written in the annotations on the book of the kings. And Amaziah his son succeeded him as king.

• 2 Chronicles 24:1-27

 Noted Biblical Scholars, Teachers, and Preachers Comments

2 Chronicles 22:3 ‘his mother advised … wickedly’: “Athaliah and the rest of Ahab’s house who were in the young king’s life taught him wickedness and led him to moral corruption, idolatry, and folly in being induced to war with the Syrians (vv. 5, 6).”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

2 Chronicles 23:3 ‘as the Lord … said’: “This is one of the most dramatic moments in messianic history. The human offspring of David have been reduced to one Joash. If he had died, there would have been no human heir to the Davidic throne, and it would have meant the destruction of the line of the Messiah. However, God remedied the situation by providentially protecting Joash (22: 10-12) and eliminating Athaliah (23: 12-21).”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

2 Chronicles 24:2 ‘Studying Humanity’: “It would be far easier to understand any other creature than to understand a human being. He is worthy of study, and the more he is studied, the more will he surprise us. Certain characters are great curiosities. Alas, other characters are great monstrosities. You can never tell from what a person is what he will be. The case before us is extraordinary because here is a man with every possible advantage, who through a number of years exhibited the brightest form of character. And yet in the end, he was not thought worthy to be laid in the tombs of his fathers with the other kings of Judah. Neither was he worthy of any royal interment, for the latter part of his life blackened and defiled the whole of his career, and he who began his reign like the dawning of the day ended it like the middle of the night. Verses 17-18 read, ‘However, after Jehoiada died, the rulers of Judah came and paid homage to the king. Then the king listened to them, and they abandoned the temple of the Lord, the God of their ancestors, and served the Asherah poles and the idols.’ Could any of us turn out to be sinful and wicked before life is over—those who have begun well, who are now the hope and joy of those who know them, but who will end badly, in dishonor to themselves and grief to their households? If there are such, probably we can find them out by this one test. Those who say, ‘It is impossible that it should be so with us,’ are probably the persons. While those who are afraid lest it should be so and ask for grace that it may not be so are probably those who will be preserved and whose path will shine brighter and brighter unto the perfect day.”

• Charles H. Spurgeon, from sermon notes

2 Chronicles 24:15-16 ‘Jehoiada’: “This man was the high priest of Athaliah’s and Joash’s reigns (cf. 23:1-24:16) who championed God’s cause of righteousness during days of evil by: (1) leading the fight against idols; (2) permitting the coup against Athaliah; and (3) granting the throne to Joash to bring about the subsequent revival.”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

2 Chronicles 24:17-18 ‘after Jehoiada’s death’: “After Jehoiada’s death, the leaders of Judah convinced King Joash that they needed to return to idolatry. With the death of the old priest came the turning point in the reign of Joash. He ‘listened’ means Joash gave consent for the idol worship and thus it began.”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

2 Chronicles 24:20-25 ‘Zechariah Prophesies Bad Tidings’: “A series or prophets are sent to warn King Joash and his administration that they are falling afoul of the Lord. Finally, the Lord raises up Zechariah, the son (possibly the grandson—see Matthew 23:35) of the late Jehoiada, a priest who had a tremendous reforming influence over King Joash, to proclaim a warning of divine displeasure (24:20). This warning so infuriates the king and his officials that the mob immediately stones Zechariah in the temple courts (24:21). The prophet’s final words are, ‘May the LORD see and avenge!” (24:22).
“Within the year, both divine judgment and Zechariah’s vindication come. The Arameans invade Judah and Jerusalem and, although they are a modest force, they leave great damage in their wake (24:23-24). Joash’s own servants ‘conspired against him because of the blood of the son of Jehoiada the priest, and murdered him on his bed’ (24:25).”

• Tim LaHaye and Ed Hindson, Exploring Bible Prophecy

2 Chronicles 24:22 ‘did not remember’: “Cf. 22:11, where Jehoiada’s wife preserved Joash from certain death as an infant, or 23:1—24:1, where Jehoiada devised a plan to dethrone Athaliah and crown Joash king, or 24:2, where Jehoiada is acknowledged as the voice of righteousness for Joash. Yet, Joash willfully ignored all that. Zechariah died pronouncing the just doom that would eventually come to the king.”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

My Thoughts

Ahaziah, son of Jehoram, was king for only a year.  He was the sole survivor when raiders had killed all the other sons of Jehoram.  Judah went to war.  Ahaziah was wounded and when he went to get his wounds attended, Jehu, commissioned to destroy the family line of Ahab, king of the northern tribes, found out where he was.  Jehu killed Ahaziah.

Athaliah, wife of the late king Jehoram and daughter of Ahab and Jezebel, took advantage of the situation.  She had all the offspring of the king killed, and she became ruler of Judah.  But she was unaware that her own daughter, Jehosheba, wife of Jehoiada, had secretly stolen away Ahaziah’s baby, Joash.  Jehoiada was the high priest.  He and Jehosheba raised Joash.

When Joash reached seven years old, Jehoiada got the commanders of the military to support making Joash the king.  They guarded the king and the gates to the temple.  They anointed Joash king.  The shouts stand out in this story.  The people shouted, “Long live the king.”  In hearing this and seeing the king, Athaliah shouted, “Treason, treason!”  The guards were given instructions to kill anyone that helped Athaliah.  They were also instructed to kill no one within the temple.  Athaliah was apprehended at the horse gate and killed there.  Her priest of Baal was also killed.  The idols were destroyed, and the Baal altar was smashed.

Joash was a good king as long as he had Jehoiada as his advisor.  He even saw that the temple was in disrepair and told the priests to reinstitute the temple tax.  The priests did not do so at first, but then a chest was built.  The people were instructed to put their tax into the chest.  The chest was filled, the people gladly doing so.  And they would empty the chest each time it was filled.  They repaired the temple, and they made implements for the temple with the leftover money.

But Jehoiada became 130 years old, and he died.  He was buried with the kings due to his faithful service.

But once Jehoiada was gone, Joash turned to the leftover officials from his father Ahaziah and grandfather Jehoram.  Worship of God was forgotten, and they returned to Asherah and the Baals.

Prophets came to denounce the king for what he did.  One of them was Zechariah, son of Jehoiada.  When he prophesied against Joash, he was stoned by order of the king.

Aram, with a lesser force, defeated Judah, wounding Joash.  The officials that had been supportive of Jehoiada, killed Joash and had him buried, but not with the kings of Judah.  Joash had abandoned God and killed the son of Jehoiada, the very person who saved the life of Joash.

In the Relationship series, I wrote about the relationship between Jehoiada, Jehosheba, and Joash.  As long as his “adoptive” parents were there to advise Joash, God was worshipped, and the nation prospered.  As soon as Jehoiada died, everything fell apart.  Joash did not rid himself of the evil advisors.  He immediately took their advice.  It seems like most people today when it comes to politics.  “I am bored with slow growth and a movement toward a stronger nation, let’s change things and see what happens.”  Change for the sake of change is not growth.  As C. S. Lewis said, there must be continuity with change to have growth, but the modern political philosophy is to destroy the old ideas at the roots.

Joash destroyed all the reform that he, himself, had instituted at the root, and the nation suffered as a result.

So, was Joash a good king or a bad king?  Was Joash just being good due to his father figure guiding him?  We are each held to account by what is in our own hearts.  You can take good advice and follow that advice without your heart being in it.  The officials did not give Joash a kingly burial, but the ultimate judge is God as to whether Joash had God in his heart.  It seems he never did, but he honored Jehoiada.  Yet, he did not allow that honor to pass to Zechariah.

And the curse of Ahab was a generational curse, to the third and fourth generations.  Athaliah was first generation.  Ahaziah was second.  Joash was third and Amaziah fourth.  In Matthew’s genealogy of Jesus, Matthew skips Ahaziah, Joash, and Amaziah.  He goes from Jehoram, who married Athaliah, but was not a descendant of Ahab, to Uzziah, son of Amaziah and thus the curse is lifted.

But I only partially agree with Rev. MacArthur.  To preserve the kingly line from David to Jesus, this story of intrigue had to occur to preserve Joash as king.  But the Luke genealogy, which goes through Solomon’s brother, Nathan (full brother in that Bathsheba was Nathan’s mother).  This is the bloodline to Mary, Joseph’s wife.  Joseph accepting Jesus as his own completes the kingly line, but Jesus is in the family bloodline of David through Nathan.  The family line through Nathan preserves the bloodline to David whether the kings after Ahaziah remained in the family line of David or not.  But the melding of these two bloodlines with Joseph and Mary accomplishes both, and the preservation of Joash was necessary for that.

Some Serendipitous Reflections

2 Chronicles 22:1-9 Ahaziah King of Judah 1. Have you had to struggle with any negative impact from your mother upon your own life? Upon your religious faith?
2 Chronicles 22:10-23:21 Athaliah and Joash 1. Should we ever involve ourselves in violent revolutions? If yes, when? If no, why not?
“2. What is the balance between ‘trusting the Lord’ and ‘taking matters in your own hands’ as a Christian? How does this story help you decide?
“3. Where do you think God needs to raise up a modern Jehoiada to show his strength?
2 Chronicles 24:1-16 Joash Repairs the Temple 1. Who is the single most influential religious figure in your life? How has he or she helped you remain faithful to God the way Jehoiada did for Joash?
“2. What would get you excited about giving money to a church? What turns you off?
2 Chronicles 24:17-22 The Wickedness of Joash 1. In the end, Joash’s religious reforms were only skin deep. What should he have done to bring about a deep, long lasting revival in the people of Judah?
“2. What can you do to bring about renewal in your own community? What persecution (and blessing) might you get in return?”

• Lyman Coleman, et al, The NIV Serendipity Bible for Study Groups

There are four sets of questions for 2 Chronicles 22-24 as indicated above.

Substitute whatever group for any reference to a small group or ask who could come to your aid.

If you like these Thursday morning Bible studies, but you think you missed a few, you can use this LINK. I have set up a page off the home page for links to these Thursday morning posts. I will continue to modify the page as I add more.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.